25 comments to Gil should have a chat with Jack Riley

Saying the war on drugs is over while police and federal agents are still kicking down doors and shooting dogs is the propaganda that just won’t float,,,but it worked for Iraq and is working for Afg,,,except that Al Quieda (alleged)just killed the top general of Yemen’s armed forces.

“”This decriminalization of marijuana does not mean we endorse the use of marijuana but it is only a call to wiser use of law enforcement and public health policy. Prohibition of marijuana abdicates the control of marijuana production and distribution to drug cartels and street gangs. Such prohibition promotes disrespect for the law and reinforces ethnic and generational divides between the public and law enforcement.””

Jaw dropping thud,,,but TX is predominately Republican in their legislature,,however that could change with the economy in the ditch,,,

I think that hearing “Prohibition of marijuana abdicates the control of marijuana production and distribution to drug cartels and street gangs” come (again) from a state pol party is,

a) a resounding acknowledgement of all you wwweb warriors, you lte writers, you whom are well spoken in fam and community, all of us that have been yammering that exact point for decades.

And

b) a bat for folks (like here in OR) to beat on their state parties with – “hey look, if Texas is starting to get this, why aren’t you all? I mean you do grasp the concept yes? Please tell us you do…”

Heck, it’s easy enough to do, even the Repugnicans in WA get it.

Cannabis Spring indeed… legalization, the real Nessie…. Sh’r, fewks thot we wa’ a daft lot, but look’tit! E’en they see tain’t a myth a’tall… [cue to Young Frankenstein] “it lives! IT LIVES!!”

As far as Mark and his legalization will bring drastic increases in use theory… most people will not be attracted to most other drugs. The largest shift (imho) would be to ganja, because most other drugs just aren’t as… easy to get along with. That and those countries actually venturing into other than Prohibition drug policy modes are finding decreases in use, associated crime… I mean really… this literally isn’t rocket science.

Decrim is a small step, and I’m not entirely convinced it is really where we want to go. That having been said, I believe that anything that lessens the impact of a marijuana bust is positive. And maybe, just maybe, the message will get through to Hopey the Eighth Dwarf.

I hate the way politicians can change the meaning of a word and make the whole country accept that new meaning. Decriminalization actually means (should mean) removal of ALL criminal and civil penalties and sanctions related to whatever is being decriminalized.

Politicians have twisted the meaning of “decriminalization” from “NO penalties” (as with growing, selling/buying, possessing and using/eating basil, carrots, tomatoes, etc.) to “decreased penalties”: fines, 1-3 days in jail, etc. there is still an arrest record and likely a conviction record, tho no longer a felony it becomes a misdemeanor, but an arrest, even for a misdemeanor, has a chilling effect on one’s ability to make a living in future.

Yes, just like Lord Morley said. A lesson that far too many in our camp still haven’t learned.

Take Prop215. That should have been our Normandy…but instead became our Anzio.

And just like Anzio, the miscalculation has proven to be terribly expensive for cannabis reform, in that after achieving the initial success, little more was done, and the opposition had lots of time to build-up a counter-attack. Which they’ve now done, with devastating results.

Yes, a lot was our fault…’ours’ as in the ‘leadership’ of the movement in honestly, truly expecting any quarter from the Feds. Having learned that lesson (I hope), we now know we cannot ever let up. Because vastly more is at stake than just the ability to toke in peace.

Nearly everyone who does their homework agrees that the majority of the criminal justice apparatus is running on drug prohibition, with all the attendant abuses of power that the accumulation of that power invited. Cannabis prohibition being the foundation cornerstone, when that’s knocked out, the only justification for maintaining the burgeoning paramilitarized police would be ‘terrorism’.

The overgrown and dangerously unaccountable ‘justice’ system cannot maintain its’ systemic abuses in that light. In fact, its’ current state cannot be justified at all without a potential ‘target pool’ of scores of millions of ‘low hanging fruit’ to prey upon, such as represented by those cannabists. Remove that, remove cannabis prohibition, and scores of thousands of those associated with and dependent upon that institutionalized predation would find they need a new food source. One the public isn’t willing to foot the bill for in these hard times. And they know it.

“At half past 5 on a cold, cloudy April morning, Ed Olexa kneels by his front door, sorting through stacks of case files for the coming day’s hearings. Olexa works as a public defender in Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania, and he’s quadruple-booked this morning, which means four clients are scheduled to appear at the same time before different judges.” (Emphasis mine – k.)

Four clients before 4 judges…at the same time. I don’t see any clones of him in the picture provided, so how in the Hell are his clients, almost all drug ‘offenders’, going to be properly represented? the obvious answer is they won’t be…and neither will any other ‘clients’ as the system cannot handle it.

How much longer the entire system holds together is dependent largely upon the Defenders…and they are cracking from the strain…

Well. Calling that poor thing a marijuana plant is generous, to say the least. So sad. Some people simply cannot take proper care of a plant. I think “compost” would be more apropos. Hope, it isn’t a merrywanna plant…although it assuredly once was.

Police in a few departments around the U.S. are testing a hand-held laser device, which boosters [say] can immediately identify illegal drugs and could revolutionize how narcotics cases are investigated and prosecuted.

Proponents hope the device, called TruNarc, will help officers quickly discern illicit substances at a time when police are seeing a surge in new, harder-to-identify designer drugs such as the psychoactive powders known as “bath salts.”

Paul Keenan, chief of police in Quincy, Mass., said his detectives have been using it for months, alongside traditional drug-testing kits.

I was inspired to write some ad copy for the product. (If any company representatives are reading this, you guys are more welcome to use it.) “TruNarc: it’s ‘cop-proof.’ Because when you’re a true narc, plain old ‘idiot-proof’ just won’t cut it.”

The badge-lickers are getting whupped. Hard. But the main problem with the comments is the usual one: failure to blame drug prohibition for leading to the military mindset of public servants vis-a-vis their paymasters that required the law to be written. The police would never have become such a problem, had it not been for that.

Here’s a golden opportunity for educating those who may already be thinking along those lines, and for those for whom it never occurred to think about it in this way.

How dare this corrupt ex-marine refer to us as “civilians”. We are the citizens of what was once the most successful and freedom loving nation on earth, until that is, mindless authoritarians like himself decided to incinerate our American traditions.

People like Heaton, Hubbard and Downs are willing servants of tyranny and hate, having but one sole purpose – to make the rest of us suffer their putrid legacy of incalculable ignorance, waste and destruction.

Uniform or no uniform, enter my house illegally and you’ll leave in a friggin’ box!